Those reports are not bad, but not great either. Despite slight upticks in home sales and construction, the housing sector is still in the doldrums as supply continues to far outweigh demand for homes.

"Even as buyers scoop up deals of a lifetime, the river of foreclosed properties continues to flow," Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to investors Wednesday morning.

The median home price slipped 5.9% to $159,600, compared to a year earlier.

Meanwhile, some buyers are still finding it tough to get a mortgage, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a release. The average credit score to get a conventional mortgage has risen to 760 from 720 in 2007.

"Although home sales are coming back without a federal stimulus, sales would be notably stronger if mortgage lending would return to the normal,safe standards that were in place a decade ago -- before the loose lending practices that created the unprecedented boom and bust cycle," he said.